Back To The Start
by Dragon'sHost
Summary: Lucy has lost everything she ever cared for, all thanks to the black dragon of the apocalypse. So, with the help of two old journals belonging to her ancestor Anna and a dragon slayer 400 years dead, she will find out the secret to Acnologia's defeat. No matter the personal cost.
1. Resolution

**Here is the first chapter to one of the giveaway prizes from last year. This is going to be an interesting fic, filled with a number of headcanons. It's... probably not going to have a happy ending. I anticipate about 5 chapters total for this.**

 **Dedicated to tammyscythe – I hope you enjoy your prize.**

 **I highly recommend "Dynasty" by MIIA for mood music.**

* * *

Heaving a sigh, Lucy pushed back from her desk, chair wheels squeaking on the plastic floor cover. Rubbing her eyes, she let out a yawn. "That's it!" she stated. "I'm done for the day! No more!"

Behind her, at his own desk, her supervisor laughed. "Calling it a night?"

"Yeah. Couldn't write another word if I tried." Lucy stretched, her joints creaking as if she were eighty instead of eighteen. For good measure, she flexed her hands and wrists. Soreness had long since set into them, and it was a relief to put down her pen at last.

Without looking up from his own work, Jason passed her a ceramic mug. "Mind filling this up before you head out?"

"Sure thing." Plucking the mug from Jason's fingers, Lucy grabbed her own mug and stood up. A short walk, and she was at the break room in Sorcerer Weekly's headquarters. After she placed her mug in the dishwasher, she eyed the brown sludge that remained in the coffee pot. Long since cold, the grounds had congealed and were starting to smell funny. The liquid didn't seem much better.

"Getting you tea instead!" she called out across the empty bullpen, sticking her head around the corner of the breakroom door. "The coffee's no good!"

A thumbs up was raised above the partition in acknowledgement.

Lucy gave the cup a quick rinse, then dropped a tea bag in, and poured hot water from the water dispenser on top of it. While it steeped on the counter, she popped lid off the coffeepot, removing the filter and grounds and tossing them in the trash. Thankfully the building cleaners hadn't arrived yet. One quick scrub later and it was back where it belonged.

Removing the tea bag, she dumped two packets of sugar in. Jason would need the extra boost, and after two weeks of working with him, Lucy had come to notice that he had a sweet tooth that could almost put Erza's to shame.

The thought of her redheaded friend sent a pang of loneliness through her chest.

But Lucy ignored it, grabbing the mug and walking back to her desk.

"Thanks, you're the coolest." Jason finally looked up from his article-in-progress, and watched as Lucy gathered her coat and keys. "Finally getting used to the odd hours?"

Lucy smiled wearily at him. "I always kinda kept weird hours, so the adjustment was pretty easy."

"That's good! When do you think you'll have the research ready for that report on Boscan mage guilds ready for me?"

"Hmm... tomorrow afternoon, if I really crack down on it."

Jason beamed. "Cool! That'll be perfect. See you tomorrow, and take care on your way home!"

"I will. Bye, Jason."

Leaving the office, Lucy stopped at looked at the sky overhead. It was almost completely dark out, and Crocus's streetlights blazed against the night sky - too bright for her to see any stars.

Her footsteps dragged as she made her way to the train station. It wasn't too far from the office, which was nice, she mused. So were the bento lunches sold in the kiosk by the platforms. Lucy purchased one, before hopping on her train to Magnolia. She ate it silently as the train pulled away from the platform.

The scenery began to flow into the night, a formless blur as the train picked up speed. If she were being honest, the food tasted much the same. Lucy couldn't remember the last time food had excited her. She patted her stomach. She'd lost some weight recently, with her appetite mostly gone.

Three weeks ago, that thought would have made her happy. But for some reason, she couldn't seem to stir herself to the emotion.

She threw away her bento box, only half eaten.

Lucy stared out the window, her gaze unfocused and unseeing, even if there was some way she could see the world outside the train. She yawned widely - the steady thrum of the moving vehicle lulling her into drowsiness. With a shake of her head, Lucy held back another yawn. She wished Crocus wasn't so far from Magnolia - the three hour-long commute each way was brutal.

Maybe it was time for her to look for an apartment close to the office.

Maybe it was time to accept the fact that there was no one she loved still in Magnolia.

Maybe it was time she stopped waiting for people who weren't coming back.

"Now pulling into Magnolia Station."

Lucy jolted in her seat at the announcement, having dozed off despite her best efforts at staying awake. She gathered her things in a hurry, just barely ready to go by the time the train doors opened with a hiss.

Magnolia was quiet this time of night, and the streets were mostly empty. Light and sound still spilled out of the taverns, but they were the only source of life along Lucy's route home. Her feet thudded on the pavement, carrying her swiftly past the pools on light that spilled out the doorways. The sounds grated on her, and her head spun. Focusing on the ground, Lucy picked up her pace a little more, nausea swimming inside her. Soon the sounds of the taverns were behind her, as she entered the residential district and turned onto her street.

Once in front of her apartment, she reached for her key. Her fingertips brushed against the cool metal of her keyring, and Lucy found herself fighting against another wave of nausea. She gagged, and furiously fumbled keys in her hands, hands shaking as she found her apartment key and tried to get it into the lock. Missing twice, she got it into the keyhole on the third try. Pushing the door open, she rushed into her apartment, and to the toilet where she vomited what little she'd managed to eat.

She knelt on the cool tile, hands clutching the porcelain and breathing heavily.

"Princess," a soft voice called behind her.

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut, steadfastly ignored her concerned spirit.

"Princess. I have prepared a fresh change of clothes for you, along with a hot towel and a glass of water to cleanse your mouth."

"Virgo," Lucy whispered hoarsely, unable to raise her voice any higher. "Thank you."

"You are most welcome. However, I believe you are suffering from acute exhaustion, and that you should take the day off tomorrow to recuperate."

"I can't. I have a report to hand in." Gratefully, Lucy took the water from her spirit. She held the water in her mouth without swallowing, swirling it around and then spitting it out into the toilet. Then she took the towel, wiping her face as she flushed the vomit away. "I promised. I can't… I can't break anymore promises, Virgo." Her voice cracked. "I can't!"

The spirit sat down beside her, and held her while she cried. "You didn't, Lucy," she consoled, gently rubbing Lucy's back. "You didn't break any promises to Aquarius."

"I did! She was my spirit! I… I _sacrificed_ her, Virgo! What kind of…" She hiccupped. "What kind of celestial wizard _does_ that?"

"You had no choice; Aquarius made the decision. You didn't betray anyone. Not us. Not her. Letting your friends die would have been the betrayal, and thanks to you it didn't happen."

A wail warbled out of Lucy's throat, as broken as her heart. "Then why are they still gone?!"

Virgo had no answer for that. She continued to hold Lucy, until she cried herself out and fell asleep in the spirit's arms. Once she had, she changed her clothes, then picked her up and tucked her into bed.

* * *

 _Lucy watched herself struggle against the demons. She shouted, and sobbed as Aquarius vanished in a shower of golden light. Pounded at the walls of the invisible bubble from which she observed, screaming for Aquarius to come back, to rewind time, for anything that could return here friend to her._

 _But just as before the spirit was gone, and there was nothing Lucy could do about it._

 _Her eyes streamed with tears, as she watched her friends fight for their lives against Tartaros. Trembled, when she felt the boneshaking roar echoing in the dark sky. Wings of darkness filled the sky, and suddenly she was no longer watching him combat the red dragon, but staring down its maw as it consumed Tenrou. She was paralyzed with fear, her legs unable to move and the bubble that prevented her from helping her friends no detriment to the dragon's wrath._

 _Then the red dragon fell from the sky, a gaping hole in its midsection._

 _Lucy screamed and cried for Igneel, but mostly for Natsu. His father falling, dying._

 _Nothing Lucy could do to stop it._

 _Her arms were covered in blood, as a man laughed over her death. Palace tile merging with the rubble left in Tartaros's wake, her own corpse lying broken on top of it._

When Lucy was jolted violently from sleep, she promptly turned over and grabbed a bowl lying on the floor beside her bed, then vomited into it.

It wasn't long before Virgo appeared. She gently wiped Lucy's face with another hot towel, and removed the bowl for cleaning. "I will let your work know that you're not coming in today," the spirit told her softly. To which Lucy could only nod weakly in agreement.

Everything was gone. Everything she loved, vanished like water droplets thrown at a fire, evaporated to nothing.

Her mother, her father, Aquarius, the guild, her friends. Gone.

Natsu.

It was as if the black dragon had blasted a hole through her, as well. A void through which her friends had fallen.

Everything was that dragon's fault. It had prevented her from having a relationship with her father, from being there when he died. It had led to Future Rogue destroying the future with his own hands, and trying to eliminate any chance of hers. It had brought down Igneel, whom Natsu had searched for, for so long.

"Princess," Virgo announced, returning to Lucy's side. "Your boss said to take all the time you need – he'd make do with what you left behind."

 _Left behind._

Lucy was rubble.

And it was all the fault of that dragon.

"Virgo." The spirit nodded in acknowledgement. "I think… I think Erza mentioned… a library. Where is it?"

"I presume you mean the Sorcery Library," she intoned. "It's not far from Magnolia. Half a day's walk. But you can't mean to go when you're in this condition, Princess."

Lucy shook her head. "I don't think I can stomach travel today." Her smile at Virgo was wobbly. "But I'm taking tomorrow off as well. Maybe… maybe more than just tomorrow."

The pink haired spirit stared long and hard at her key holder, her friend that was pushing herself too hard. "Is it too much to hope for that you'll take the time to rest?"

"I can't afford to," Lucy informed her. "That dragon is still out there, Virgo. He took everything away from me. He's terrorized this world for too long. But he must have a weakness. Somewhere. I'm going to find it, and help my friends and stop him from hurting anyone ever again."

She took a deep breath.

"I'm going to find a way to kill the black dragon, Acnologia."


	2. The Library Of Sorcery

**Here's the second chapter at last! Slightly shorter than the last one, and kind of an info-dump of my headcanons for the Library Of Sorcery. But I hope you all enjoy it nonetheless!**

 **I highly recommend "Supposed To Be" by Arty for mood music in this chapter.**

* * *

Awe consumed Lucy as she gazed upon the towering bookshelves, level upon level of stored knowledge climbing too high to see the end of. The Tower of Wisdom described in _Key Of The Starry Skies_ was beyond her expectations, even after being informed by Erza about what lay within it. The warm atmosphere, the rich smell of paper, and the comfortable furniture spread throughout the interior was something out of her fondest dreams.

She had spent most of the day before resting, and now felt reinvigorated with the energy of this place. Her soul was quenched in a way it hadn't been in a very long time; a deep-seated need fulfilled merely by standing amongst such grandeur. Getting down to research could hardly be tedious in such a wonderful setting. Although technically… she wasn't only there to research Acnologia and the dragon war. Lucy was also there with work as an excuse. Research for Jason for pending articles on both the Library of Sorcery and… whatever else Jason wanted her to look into after that. For the moment, just what that would entail was a mystery. When she'd informed him that she wished to go there, he'd been extremely excited by the prospect; even though Jason was generally contracted to write puff pieces for Sorcerer Weekly, he was often tasked with the more serious articles in the publication as well so something like this wasn't too far out of his wheelhouse.

Lucy had immediately grabbed onto the excuse to spend as much time as she wanted in the ancient library. If she happened to do a little side research in addition to what Jason needed of her, no one could really complain. She was paid per piece instead of hourly, anyway.

The only real question was where to begin. With any of it. Such wealth was displayed before her, but as amazing as it was it was also daunting as to where to begin. Circling the lowest floor, she inspected every nook and cranny but failed to locate a librarian of any sort. It left her scratching her head, staring at the huge number of unlabeled bookshelves wondering if this was truly paradise after all, and not some form cosmic punishment.

How in Earthland was she supposed to find any particular subject in this place?! Let alone a specific book?!

This was already looking to be a rather formidable task.

Maybe there was a directory of some sort…? She hadn't seen one, but maybe there was.

Or maybe… maybe this place was ancient enough that Crux might have information on it. It was a long shot, but the alternative (namely, going through every single shelf one by one and mapping out the entire layout) wasn't looking like a whole lot of fun. Besides, a piece of the Infinity Clock had been left here by a celestial mage at one point, so it wasn't a _total_ shot in the dark, right?

So she reached for her keyring, and pulled out the silver key belonging to the elderly spirit. Her hand trembled slightly as she held it out in front of her, no matter her efforts to hold it steady, and her stomach twisted itself into knots. Summoning her spirits never used to be this hard, she reflected with bone-deep sorrow. It should never hurt so much to see her friends.

"I beseech thee, in the name of the stars. Open, Gate of the Southern Cross – Crux." The shortened incantation was softer than how she'd spoken it before. The bell of the gate opening rang in her head – heralding Crux's impending arrival. Sometimes it took him a couple moments longer than the other spirits to answer her call. He was getting up there in years, after all. Which led her to the interesting dilemma as to how it was celestial spirits could get old in the first place, as it implied a normal life span. Then again, the stars were young once, too, before they grew into old giants. Maybe it was the same with the spirits that reflected the heavenly bodies. And therefore it just took an _astronomical_ amount of time to do so.

Bright flashes of light formed in the air, and Lucy found herself blinking furiously against the glare of energy as Crux passed through the gate. He must be tired, Lucy reasoned, seeing spots of purple afterimages across her retinas. Usually he wasn't so… forceful, in coming through his gate.

"Hello, Miss Lucy," the spirit greeted her, floating calmly in front of the teenager. "How may I be of assistance?"

"Hello, Grandpa Crux," Lucy responded with a soft smile. She swallowed thickly, gathering her voice for her request. "I was wondering if you could look up something for me. Though I'm not one hundred percent sure it will even be in your database, since you specialize in celestial history."

"If necessary, I can consult the library in the celestial world," he informed her kindly.

That was more than Lucy had actually hoped for. Maybe she could ask him if there was anything in the celestial world's library that pertained to Acnologia…? No, first things first – work related research took precedence. She could always ask him later.

Lucy resolutely refused to acknowledge the niggling voice in the back of her mind that reminded her she'd thought she'd have more time with Aquarius and Fairy Tail, too.

"What can you tell me about the Library of Sorcery?" she asked him, sitting down at a table with her pen and notepad. "I've noticed that there isn't a librarian, and I was wondering if you knew anything about this place or, hopefully, _maybe_ , you might know how the books here are organized. Because there's no logical pattern as far as I can tell."

His eyes glittered for a split second before they closed. Soon, he was snoring away, a giant snot bubble blowing from his nose.

Accustomed to this routine, Lucy sat back in her chair and looked around at the library some more. Suddenly, a glimmer caught her eye. On the shelf next to her was a figure, scratched into the inside of the woodgrain on the inside of the shelf. Peering at it, Lucy couldn't make out what it was supposed to be. Was it a letter of some sort? A picture? Whatever it was, it shimmered as if coated in silver paint.

Then her attention was drawn back to her spirit as he let out a screech. "We have a lot of information on the library, it turns out," Crux informed her. Lucy nodded encouragingly at him, scribbling into her notepad as he continued to speak. "This library predates most of the institutionalized magic that exists today. It's somewhere in the vicinity of seven hundred years old, kept in the condition it is by countless layers of spells. Largely, it keeps the books in good condition and prevents lasting damage to the premises."

That was surprising to hear. But then again, she remembered Erza telling her that her group had fought _"the foulest villains I've ever had the misfortune of encountering,"_ and yet there was no evidence of a scuffle anywhere. "So how does it keep everything from getting damaged?" she asked, now truly curious about the place.

"Hundreds of highly localized and layered modified time dilation and reversal spells."

Lucy's eyes nearly popped out of her skull at Crux's answer, and she choked on her own spit. "Say what?!"

"They revert the books back to the condition they were when they were first entered into the archives, and they distort the perception of time for anyone who enters the building," continued the spirit, smiling at the stupefied expression on Lucy's face. "It took many mages two centuries to fully complete the task. Such a feat of magic has no equal in all the world."

"I'll bet," she breathed out in wonder. No wonder the place felt so… suspended from reality.

"It can also inter books and other artifacts to its archives independent of a caretaker. Generally, any book brought and left here will find its way to the shelves, which expand to accommodate." Then Crux looked pointedly at Lucy's notebook. "As a result, you may have difficulty leaving here with that still in your possession. You may have to fight the library for the right to keep it."

Lucy wasn't sure she wanted to know what that would entail. But if the library wished to claim it, it could. Provided she could find it again, that is. "So… I guess that explains the layout a bit. How does it expand?"

"Space distortion charms," Crux told her. "The building is much bigger on the inside than it is outside."

At this point why not, Lucy decided with raised eyebrows and a slight shake of her head. This place was already beyond belief. "Is there a lot of information on celestial magic here?" she asked, getting to the heart of what she truly wanted to discover. "What about dragons?"

Crux nodded sagely. "Yes, to both of your questions. Dragons may have even had a hand in its construction, supplying the power while human wizards provided the channels for it to flow. Several accounts of this sort of cooperative magic exist here as well as in the celestial world."

"I would really like to see those," Lucy told him, getting excited over all of the possible information at her fingertips. "But I'm not sure I understand how everything is filed."

Pointing to the figure Lucy had spotted before, Crux instructed, "These symbols are from a dead language, and dictate the filing system. Thankfully, as one of the more elder celestial spirits, I am versed in this language. I can show you to the appropriate section."

Light filled Lucy's heart at the prospects laid out before her. Striking gold on her first try, her quest wasn't an impossible task by any means. If there were to be answers to her questions, they were sure to be here, in the dusty old records of centuries past. Times from when there were dragons, and dragon slayers.

"Alright," she said, a grin spreading across her face. "Let's get started!"

It did Crux's old heart good to see such enthusiasm in his key holder. It had been lacking since Aquarius's key had been broken. He would be sure to inform the mermaid of this good turn of events as soon as he returned home.


	3. Complications And Missing Pieces

**Did I sob uncontrollably while writing this chapter? Yes.**

 **Please forgive how long it took to get out. Should have the next one ready for August. Also, this is now going to be a much longer fic, as I've accidentally opened up the possibility for a certain type of storyline. I've decided to pursue it, and I'm super excited about it!**

 **Recommended song is "Close" by Conro.**

* * *

Contrary to her initial hopes, it took Lucy the better part of the day to merely map out the layout of the Tower's first floor. It was best to know where things were, she had decided. That way she wouldn't have to keep calling on Crux every time she wanted to know where something was. He had a life of his own in the Celestial World, after all. It would be the height of rudeness to send him home only to drag him right back. Now that she knew how the time flowed differently between the worlds thanks to the party her spirits had thrown her, she understood just how disruptive calling upon them could be for their daily lives. Aquarius's irritation at her childhood habit of constantly summoning her made a lot more sense now.

It was better for both her and Crux to just keep him summoned while they figured out where everything was, and then she could send him home once she had a grasp on the books' organization. She just hadn't expected it to take as long as it did before she could do so. Even the bottom floor of the place was massive. Furthermore, it was a veritable labyrinth that didn't follow any convention of organization that she could readily recognize. Whatever ancient correlation it had, it was beyond Lucy's ability to intuit. Which forced her to plot everything out in her journal as she went.

Then there was issue of the fact that Lucy couldn't read half the languages that the books were written in. It had been a depressing realization, to open up half a dozen books only to find herself incapable of discerning their contents.

She missed Levy intensely in that moment. The blue-haired woman would know exactly what these books said, no matter the language. Loneliness welled up inside of her. The absence of her friends and teammates ached like a missing limb – a large chunk of her soul cut out and gone with them.

It wasn't as if she wouldn't find _any_ information in the library without Levy's help, she knew. Several of the tomes were bound to have translated versions _somewhere_ in the building. And Fiore's national language was one that had existed for at least four hundred years without too much deviation. The question was whether she'd be able to find the books written or translated to it, and if their contents held what she needed within them.

She wasn't placing much hope in her infamous luck to help her out in that department. Besides which, it felt lately that her luck had long since run out. Tenrou Island, the Neo Oracion Seis attempting to sacrifice her to a clock, getting the crap beaten out of her at the Grand Magic Games and being thrown into jail, a dragon invasion, and then… Tartaros.

Yeah… her luck had run out a long, long time ago.

Perhaps it had all been used up in meeting Natsu, and in joining Fairy Tail.

By the time she had to call it a day, Lucy had come to the crushing realization that even if the library held all the information that she needed, it was going to take her a lot of time to comb through it all. Let alone discern what information was actually helpful for her cause. Lucy highly doubted a book existed that would be so fortuitously titled: _How To Defeat A Dragon King_.

The bright spot in all of it was that while he'd helped her, Crux had also provided enough information for Lucy to write a preliminary article on the place for Jason to look over. She would organize her notes once she got home for the night, though, and then write it. Skipping lunch while working in the archives had been a poor idea, and her stomach was complaining so loudly that it would have gotten her kicked out of a normal library.

"Is it alright if I summon you again tomorrow?" Lucy asked him, just before dismissing him for the day. "I think I'm going to need more help figuring out where everything is. But if not, then I can work with what I've already got." She refused to be an imposition to him. Not like she had been to Aquarius.

The spirit considered it. "I'm afraid that I'm unavailable tomorrow," he said slowly. "My apologies, Miss Lucy. I would love to continue to assist you, but it will have to wait two of your days, at least."

Crestfallen, Lucy nodded. "That's alright. You have your own life to live. It would be selfish of me to take up too much of your time."

A kind, if sorrowful, smile spread across Crux's face. "Miss Lucy, you aren't an imposition to us. I fear that Aquarius's lack of patience is to blame, here. Hardly any time passes in our world while we're in yours. Our lives are not disrupted by any great account in being a part of yours. We all knew what being bound to gate keys would entail when we agreed to be so. Truthfully, our lives are enriched for the experience – time moves so slowly in our world that it's easy to become stagnant, to fall out of touch with what is happening on Earthland. We take great joy being your spirits, and a part of your life and adventures, Miss Lucy. Please take heart in that."

Hot tears gathered in Lucy's eyes at his words, and her cheeks and ears burned. Shakily, she nodded her head. "Okay," she breathed out. She furiously wiped her eyes with her arm and gave Crux a tremulous smile. "I'll try to remember that."

She'd keep his words in her heart, always.

"Miss Lucy," Crux continued, his wizened face relaxing at Lucy's response, "I am not the only one of your spirits that you can call upon to help you. Most of your spirits will know at least one of the languages in these tomes. Although they aren't quite my advanced age, they've been around a long time, and served many summoners in the past. Call upon whoever you wish, and they'll keep you company for as long as you need them. And, I suspect, if you should want them longer than that, they'll happily remain then, too."

Lucy hiccupped, trying to force back a sob. These were the things she'd needed to hear, she realized. She hadn't known that she'd needed them until they were already said, and yet they slid so easily into an empty place in her heart. "I will!" she told Crux, her voice heavy with emotion. Lucy needed her spirits, and they needed her, too. She would face them once more, and this time she would try to do it with love in her heart instead of sorrow. " _I promise._ "

* * *

The library, true to Crux's warning, did attempt to keep Lucy's notes that night. It took her the better part of a half hour to escape with her notebook intact, though Lucy couldn't quite explain how the library was _doing_ it in the first place. One moment, the book was in her hand, and the next it was back at the table she'd been working at. It played tricks on her mind – she couldn't actually say for sure that she hadn't left it there herself. Multiple times. But she knew enough of magic to know when it was trying to bamboozle her.

It was a minor blessing that it kept returning to the same table, all told. Lucy wasn't sure she'd be able to find the damn thing again if the library were to shelve it somewhere else in the building.

The whole ordeal rendered Erza's previous success with removing the clock piece somewhat incredible to Lucy.

* * *

Early the next morning, an inability to sleep, despite how tired she was, drove Lucy from her bed long before she had intended to. It seemed as if these days she was perpetually exhausted; on the verge of dropping off to sleep at any moment. And other days, insomnia plagued her instead. Her sleep schedule had gone completely off the charts in terms of predictability. The odd hours she worked with Jason were also not conducive to a consistent night's rest.

Lacking ought else to do, she found herself at the Library of Sorcery. The world was still covered in blue, the morning songs of the birds just starting their first notes.

Maybe the early start would help her make more progress than the day before, or so she reasoned. The stone edifice of the Tower was hard to pick out, somehow, in the predawn. Like her eyes just… slid right past it. Given the intricacies of the spells within the building, it wouldn't be too surprising if there were spells on the _outside_ of it, too.

In fact, that might be a large part of the reason it was still standing after four hundred years. Lucy knew from her childhood obsession with the ruins spoken of in _Key Of The Starry Skies_ that very few buildings of that age remained intact around Fiore. She wasn't sure about Ishgar as a whole, but for Fiore it was definitely true. Not even Cardia Cathedral came close to that age, and it was easily the oldest building in Magnolia. Objectively, Lucy knew that countless wars and the early days of magic experimentation had a lot to do with that. She couldn't help but feel a sense of loss, however. How many libraries had disappeared over the past four hundred years? Or libraries even older than that? Lacking the extensive, mind-boggling protections that this building possessed, how much knowledge had vanished altogether?

This was the sort of thing that she would have liked to talk to Levy about. Or maybe even Freed. Warren knew a lot about this sort of thing too, surprisingly enough. If he was there, he'd probably regale her with tales of other magical places he'd come across in his extensive traveling. Freed would be over the moon in dissecting the spellwork that comprised the Library, and Levy… it would have been her dream come to life to read the ancient books stored here.

Stars above, she _missed_ them. More than she had words for.

She wondered where they were, at that moment. Her friends were scattered all over the place, so it was hard to find them. There was a map, in her apartment; studded thick with pins and articles tracking individual guild members as they settled into new lives for themselves. Originally Lucy had just been planning to write to them, to check on how they were doing. A way to feel connected, despite the distance. And maybe, if she had the time, she could drop in on them for a visit.

But the reality of her own busy schedule had come crashing down on her hard. It was probably no different for them. They had new lives and new concerns to deal with. She'd just be intruding.

She kept adding to the board anyway, though. It would be too painful to take it down now. That would be like she was admitting that they would never be a family again. Not like they were before.

Lucy swallowed thickly, her hands curling into fists at her sides. With an abrupt turn on her heels, she strode away from the towering library. Lead sorrow sat in her gut, heavy in her chest.

She couldn't do this today. She'd try again tomorrow.

When she returned home, she fell into bed, and immediately dropped off into a thankfully dreamless slumber.

* * *

Jason was more than pleased by how fast Lucy had gotten the first draft finished, nearly blowing out her eardrums over the phone with his excited shouting.

"This is fantastic! Super cool of you!" he crowed, as Lucy held the receiver at arm's length away. Much as she enjoyed working with the man, he was putting her hearing at serious risk. He _was_ capable of indoor voice, she knew that from experience. But when he got excited it was as if someone had cranked his volume up to the max, and then broken off the dial.

"Thank you! I'm glad you liked it," Lucy told him, smiling broadly at the praise and flushing with happiness. This was the best she'd felt in a while. The past few days of research on her personal project, and the work she'd put in towards the article on the Library of Sorcery, had beaten her spirit into the ground, honestly. Three days straight of painful quiet, with only Crux and Capricorn to occasionally break the monotony. Three days where she failed to produce the results she wanted. Three days of fighting with the building to let her keep her notes. She was exhausted.

"Liked it?! I loved it! I think we can get this one into the next issue, for sure."

Lucy's eyes gleamed; Jason's excitement was downright contagious, for all its volume. "Thank you!" she said again, so overwhelmed that she couldn't formulate anything more articulate. "Thank you so much!"

"So on another note," Jason said, his voice returning to a normal decibel, "I think I've gotten a pretty good lead on a possible interview for the magazine. Something that would catch a lot of people's attention. Since you did so well on this piece, I was thinking you might be able to handle it. Aside from which, the subject requested you personally. Can you come into the office tomorrow, so I can give you all the details?"

 _'The real world intrudes,'_ Lucy thought morosely. _'Again.'_

It wasn't as if she'd been making much headway at the Library, though. As much as she still thought it would contain the solutions she sought, they were proving difficult to locate. _Extremely_ difficult. Capricorn and Crux had been a great help, of course. The two spirits had done everything in their abilities to assist her in her search. The old goat had even left off comments about her weight and diet, which was nice. Keeping them in Earthland for as long as she had was improving her magic by leaps and bounds as well, but it was probably high time she took a break. The day she'd gone home and fallen asleep hadn't really been much of a real rest.

"Lucy?" Jason voice came through the receiver, his clear concern shattering her thoughts. "You still there?"

"Yeah," she responded with a shake of her head that he thankfully couldn't see. "What time do you want me in?"

"Seven, please."

"Got it. See you tomorrow, boss!"

When she hung up, Lucy stared blankly at the wall for a long minute. "I wonder who it could be?" she said aloud. Shooting a glance at the map, bright with pins and cluttered with cut out articles, she let out a self-deprecating little laugh. "Probably not." Lucy shook her head at her whimsy. For all that she wanted to see them so badly, it was pretty clear at this point that the feeling was not reciprocated on their end. They would have reached out, otherwise.

Calling it an early night, Lucy put herself to bed before the sun had even fully set. She would need the extra rest, after all.

For once, her dreams were peaceful.


	4. Footsteps Of The Past

**I wrote the entirety of this chapter today, as if in a fever. As a result, I'm sure there's a few mistakes, but I'm tired of looking at it.**

 **I hope you enjoy it, as things are about to start picking up in the storyline.**

 **The next chapter should be posted in October.**

 **Recommended song is "Sky Becomes Water" by City of the Fallen**

* * *

Lucy glanced around at the towering columns around her, nervousness sitting in her stomach like food poisoning. Her shoes clacked against the marble tiles, echoing off the stone walls around them.

Seeing her queasy expression, Jason slapped her on her shoulder in what he assumed was a comforting gesture. "Calm down, Lucy! It's not like you haven't met the princess before!"

She let out a weak laugh at his attempt to quell her nervousness. It was difficult to articulate to him that the problem wasn't so much that they were about to interview Fiore's royalty, but more along the lines that the last time she'd been in this area of the palace, she'd been fighting for her life. Jason wouldn't remember the details of that night, of course, and attempting to explain would only lead to confusion and trouble.

Instead, she swallowed the rising bile in her throat and offered him a trembling smile. "This is a bit more of a formal setting than last time though," she offered by way of explanation for her behavior. "It's… you know… more _official_ than a party is."

A loud laugh burst from Jason's mouth, reverberating off the stone walls and preceding them down the hallway. "I used to feel the same way!" he told her with a grin. "At the end of the day though, they're still just people like everyone else. Just remember that, and talking to famous people becomes a lot easier. I promise."

"…Okay," she acquiesced, recognizing the good advice for what it was, even if it wasn't necessarily what she needed at the moment. "I'll remember that. Thanks, Jason."

Waving off her thanks, he lifted his camera to snap a few photos of the architecture, mumbling under his breath about the historical background of the palace's construction. Lucy, used to his tangents, tuned it out as background chatter. She _was_ impressed with his wide breadth of knowledge, but at the same time there was only so much concentrated Jason that was tolerable in a single sitting.

Moreover, his advice reminded her that she needed to mentally prepare herself for the task ahead of her. When she'd gone into work the day before to discuss what interview Jason had set up on her behalf, she'd been floored when he'd told her it was with _Hisui_ , Fiore's crown princess. Even more surprising was the list of prepared questions. Some were pretty routine – discussing the rise of guilds as an economic power, plans for the next year's Grand Magic Games, and that sort of thing. But there were a few personal questions that blindsided Lucy. Those were mostly about celestial magic, and were part of a more banter-like section of the interview, aimed to capitalize on the fact that Lucy herself was a celestial wizard, and the fact that they'd met before.

Before seeing those questions, Lucy had had _no idea_ that Hisui possessed celestial magic as well. In hindsight, it did make a decent amount of sense. A good portion of the Eclipse Gate's construction would have been impossible without an intimate knowledge of celestial magic. It led Lucy to wonder how she'd never thought of that possibility before. Still, it was somewhat reassuring to know that she and Yukino were not quite the only practicing celestial magic-wielders left in Fiore. Knowing that she had something like this in common with the princess was rather… comforting. It made Lucy feel much more connected.

After the interview was concluded, however, Lucy had a few personal questions for the princess that she'd rehearsed repeatedly in the safety of her apartment. If there was anyone who'd done a lot of research into Zeref and Acnologia, it was Princess Hisui.

Coming to the end of the hallway, they turned left into another, and then shortly turned right into a depressed recess, not really long or large enough to be called a proper corridor. At the end of it, two guards stood posted at a large, heavy looking door.

"We're with Sorcerer Weekly," Jason announced, showing them his press badge. "We have an appointment with Princess Hisui."

"Why are you not accompanied by a palace servant?" One of the guards questioned, holding up a clipboard, while the other watched them intensely. Even though she knew everything was in order, and that there was nothing nefarious about their visit, Lucy couldn't help but feel like a deer being sized up by a wolf.

Jason shrugged. "Not sure. Maybe they were short-handed? Besides which, you know me, Harold. From that article a couple of years back."

Harold grumbled, but continued to eye them cautiously. "You can never be too careful."

Lucy was thankful when, a few moments later, the guard with the clipboard nodded. "All seems to be in order. You're right on time. Please wait here for a moment, while I announce your arrival."

Harold relaxed slightly while his companion entered a room that Lucy guessed to be an antechamber from the quick glimpse she got through the door. Once it shut, she heard distant knocking, and a muffled half conversation. He returned shortly and nodded at them. "Follow me," he instructed.

It was an antechamber, Lucy realized as she obediently trailed after Jason and the guard. It was a sort of waiting area, with a couple of tables and chairs with bookshelves along one wall and a window along its opposite from which light streamed into the room. Before she had the time to inspect it further, they were ushered into the princess's receiving chambers and study.

The room was filled with windows, Lucy saw with delight. Nearly the entirety of the circular room was coated with clear glass, affording the princess an excellent view of the castle gardens. Several low benches were set against the window, to allow for someone to read or relax while enjoying the sights. It was a view that Hisui presently had her back to, unfortunately, as she sat at her desk with a couple of stacks of paperwork. The green-haired woman looked up at their arrival, and smiled beatifically. "Thank you for showing them in, Yuen. I will call for you if I need you."

Yuen bowed low to her. "I will be on the other side of this door, in the antechamber." He withdrew smartly, with the sort of military preciseness that Lucy assumed was ingrained in all of the guards.

The princess stood up from her desk, setting down her pen. "Thank you for coming, both of you," Hisui told them politely. Her eyes, however, sparkled with delight. "Let us speak over there." She gestured to a couch and chairs set up around a low table, a platter of treats and a steaming teapot already waiting for them. Large bookshelves were the backdrop of this section of the room, crammed with important looking tomes and a sliding ladder to reach the tallest sections.

To Lucy's eyes, it looked strangely familiar to her for some reason.

Before she could attempt to truly place it, however, she found Jason already launching into the interview proper, and she had to force it out of her mind in order to catch up with the conversation.

* * *

When the interview was through, Jason happily shut his notebook closed and heaved a satisfied sigh. "I very much enjoyed speaking with you today, Princess Hisui," he told her. "Thank you very much for generously spending your time on us."

Hisui smiled at him politely. "Not at all, it was my pleasure." The woman then glanced at Lucy, and she seemed to hesitate for a brief moment.

Ever the observant people-watcher, Jason picked up on her body language and rose to his feet. "Lucy, I think that's it for the day."

Jumping on the opportunity that Jason was kindly presenting to her, Hisui gazed at her fellow celestial mage entreatingly. "If you're through with work for the day, might I borrow some of _your_ time, Lucy?"

The offer surprised the blonde woman. She'd been looking for an opportunity to talk to the princess alone for a good portion of the latter half of the interview, and was a little shocked that it was Hisui herself that wanted to talk with her further. "Sure thing," she agreed, relief cascading through her. "Truth be told, I was kind of hoping for an opportunity to catch up with you while I was here."

"I'll take my leave then. Farewell, Princess Hisui. I hope you have a cool day. And Lucy, I'll see you tomorrow at the office to go over our notes."

"Sure thing," Lucy replied. "See you tomorrow."

Hisui inclined her head at Jason. "Farewell."

Once Jason had left, Yuen reentered the room. "Is there anything you require, Princess?"

"Yes," she stated. "Could you please have a page sent in with fresh tea? Lucy will be staying a while longer to chat with me."

"Certainly." Yuen's lips twitched, as if he were fighting back a smile.

He departed, and Hisui slumped gratefully into her seat. "Sorry for my poor posture," she apologized, "but I can't tell you what a relief it is to finally relax a little."

"Busy schedule today I take it?" Lucy reached for one of the biscuits on the platter, nibbling the crumbly pastry more out of a need to be doing something rather than out of hunger.

"Indeed. The rest of my afternoon is clear, however. Well…" the princess amended, looking sheepish, "except for the paperwork on my desk, anyway." Suddenly, she sat straight up, a wide smile across her face. "But enough about me, today! I want to hear about you! How have you been since I last saw you?"

Lucy laughed lightly, Hisui's apparent excitement the bolster to Lucy's spirits that she'd desperately needed as of late. "I've been doing okay, I think," she told her. "It's been tough without Fairy Tail." Which was the understatement of the century, but Lucy didn't want to worry her friend with the true extent of her troubles. "But I'm managing. I do enjoy working with Sorcerer Weekly and Jason."

Despite Lucy's best efforts to come across as more or less completely fine, Hisui's face still fell at her words. "Fairy Tail's disbandment was a surprise to us all," she told Lucy softly. Reaching out, she lay a hand on Lucy's arm. "I'm here for you if you ever need to talk."

Swallowing thickly, Lucy nodded. "Thank you, but I wouldn't dream of dumping my problems onto a princess. I'm sure you have a lot on your plate already."

Hisui withdrew her arm and grimaced – an expression that Lucy hadn't previously thought the older woman capable of making. "I think I prefer your problems to my own," she grumbled. Then she caught herself, and red creeped across her cheeks. "Not that… I'm ungrateful to be let off with such a light punishment for what I've done…" she said cautiously. "But I would like to do something other than paperwork, truth be told."

"Is that why your desk is facing away from the windows?" Lucy inquired. "Because let me tell you, if I had a view like that, I wouldn't get anything done at all."

With a giggle, Hisui nodded. "It's the same for me."

"You know, until a day or two ago, I had no idea you were a celestial wizard," Lucy informed her friend. "I'm a little embarrassed that I never gave it any thought considering the… you know, circumstances."

Blinking at her owlishly, Hisui contemplated that information. "I guess it never did come up, did it? I just assumed you knew, since your father did. But then again, you were gone for seven years, and I was a good deal younger than you back then, so maybe you never heard about it."

Lucy nodded. "I was pretty disconnected from high society for a couple of years, too. I don't know how much my father told you, but basically I ran away from home when I was sixteen."

Hisui's hand flew to her mouth, her eyes wide with shock. "I had no idea. Your father was always very… vague about the circumstances leading to your estrangement. I never pried because I thought the topic too sensitive."

"That makes sense. After that year, I ran into Natsu and joined Fairy Tail. I was with them for half a year before… before Tenrou."

Sympathy clear in her green eyes, Hisui nodded. "I must confess, I actually wanted to talk to you about your father, and the research he helped me with."

That pricked Lucy's curiosity. "Really?" she inquired. "What about it?"

Hisui hesitated for a brief minute, and then responded, "He… he left something with me for you. Hold on one second." Standing up, Hisui walked over to her desk. Taking a key out of her pocket, she unlocked one of the drawers and pulled out a leather-bound book from it. Returning to Lucy, she held the object out to her. "He didn't want this to fall into the hands of his creditors, so he smuggled it out of your mansion. Eventually, he decided to leave it with me should you ever follow in his footsteps."

Taking the book, Lucy held it reverently in front of her. It was very, very old she discerned. The pages looked fragile, and the leather was worn away in places. "I'm not sure I'm following what you're saying," Lucy told Hisui, glancing back up at her. "What do you mean, following in his footsteps?"

Smiling slightly, Hisui sat down beside Lucy on the couch. "I first met your father while I was researching Zeref's black magic. He was working on his own research at the time, and wanted to peruse some of the royal archives." She bit her lip. "There was a lot of overlap in our research, so we ended up conferring often."

Lucy peered at her, still not comprehending what the princess was trying to get at.

"You see," Hisui continued, her cheeks burning with embarrassment, "when Sorcerer Weekly contacted me for an interview, I ended up asking after you with Jason. I hope you don't mind."

Shaking her head, Lucy gestured for her to go on.

"He mentioned that you were working inside the Library of Sorcery, and given all that has happened recently… I thought that maybe you might be researching the same thing that your father was."

"Which was?" Lucy prompted when Hisui trailed off.

Hisui's jade eyes bored straight through Lucy.

"How to defeat the black dragon of the apocalypse that took his daughter away from him."


End file.
